A schoolgirl is soaked with water from an elephant on Monday in the ancient world heritage city of Ayutthaya, Thailand, in a preview of the upcoming Songkran Festival, also known as the water festival, to celebrate the traditional Thai new year. The elephant Songkran event is held to promote the tourism industry prior to the three-day Songkran Festival, which starts today. Thais celebrate the annual festival by splashing water and putting powder on one another's faces as a symbolic cleansing and washing away of the sins from the old year.